SYS a: c: at the A: prompt created with my Window 98 boot disk, it says "You are overwriting files from a different Dos Version." So I copied it to my original boot disk and tried that it hung up at
I downloaded the diskmaker for 6.22 (DOSBOT29.EXE from Micron Boot disks and it gives me a I've tried F3 at several points in the boot process. When I try to boot from the DOS install disks, it says:į3 does nothing either before or after that message appears. I thought there might be a way to reformat my hard drive and re load everything fromīy backup diskettes, but if my MS Dos is corrupted or something I don't know how to When I try to boot theĤ86 using my Windows 98 backup boot disk, I can get to a C prompt. I also have a Packard Bell AMD K-6 with Windows 98. It does the exact same thing when I try to boot from the boot disk. When I try to boot up it gets to the point ofĪnd then stops. I gave it to my daughter and she fooled around with it a bit and now it will not load windows at all. That’s it! As you can tell, restoring the Compaq Portable 386 is relatively straightforward if you’re even mildly tech-savvy- the components are pretty robust, and due to the price of the computer at the time, they were built to last.I have a Leading Edge 486 with Windows 3.1 You should now be able to boot your Compaq Portable 386 to its hard disk MS-DOS prompt without needing the dos floppy. If, after MS-DOS installation, you get an error message such as “Operating system not found” or something similar, boot to your dos floppy and type “FDISK/MBR.” After executing FDISK/MBR, restart the computer once more. It seems this step may be necessary even after an MS-DOS installation else, you won’t get a hard disk command prompt. Once you have successfully installed MS-DOS, boot again from your dos boot disk, and then type FDISK /MBR at the command prompt – this adds the master boot record to your disk allowing your computer to boot from the CF card / hard disk directly. Follow the commands in FDISK to create your MSDOS partition(s) first (in case you want to set up multiple partitions or adjust their sizes), then restart and resume MS-DOS setup. Exit the setup program (press F3) and type FDISK at the command prompt, and press enter – if all is well, the FDISK program should load and give you a series of choices – press “4” to view the existing disk, partitions, and logical drives. I recommend exiting MS-DOS setup to check that the hard disks / compact flash cards are configured correctly. If you don’t have a setup disk and just used an MS-DOS boot disk, the computer should at least boot to command prompt, showing “A:/>”. After confirming the hard disks are correctly set up properly, restart the computer and insert an MS-DOS boot disk or MS-DOS install disk – if all went well in previous steps, the computer should boot from this disk, then automatically run MSDOS setup.The cool thing if you use Compaq MS-DOS, you get this amazing retro COMPAQ logo from the ’80s at boot.
Once you have your floppy disk, boot into the Compaq Diagnostics program to correctly set up the hard drive. If you can’t make floppy disks, you can try to find the disks on eBay or leave a comment below, and I will try and help. If you are using a 3.25-inch disk, then you will need to use the 720k version.
If you are using a 5 1/2 inch floppy drive, you will need to create the diagnostic disk using the 360K version.